Learning How the Brain Heals: Acceptance and Patience After Stroke

By Blair Ames

After a stroke, you want everything back at once – your old hobbies, your old abilities, your old lifestyle.  That’s the goal: get back to “normal.” Yet, as a stroke survivor, you learn that nothing comes back as quickly as you’d like.

While you may set out with the intention to fully recover your previous abilities after a stroke, no doctor or therapist can guarantee how soon that may happen or even if it is possible. It’s one of the hardest parts about stroke recovery  – not knowing what the end will look like or when it will come. The only certainty is that your life will look different. Just how different is unknown.

Neuroplasticity Provides Hope After Stroke

Unfortunately, an acquired brain injury like a stroke can’t be treated the same way as a physical injury like a sprained wrist or a twisted ankle, where a few weeks of physical therapy may leave you feeling nearly as good as new. Instead, neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to change and adapt to its environment – provides hope for stroke survivors that their abilities can improve over time. However, the brain is a notoriously slow healer, which can lead to a rollercoaster of emotional and physical challenges in the years that follow a stroke.

As you leave rehab and return home, you may quickly learn that your old habits don’t fit your new body. From your physical abilities to your emotions and mental acuity, it’s likely that you’ll be a vastly different person than you were before the stroke. Yet neuroplasticity never stops. As a stroke survivor, you’re taught that the brain will never stop trying to heal and improve itself after a stroke.

Learning from Setbacks in Stroke Recovery

The cliché “progress isn’t linear” certainly applies to recovery after stroke. With the brain’s way of healing, life after stroke can feel like a game of Chutes and Ladders – full of invigorating progress, yet rife with demoralizing pitfalls. There will be moments where you’ve been feeling pretty good, and it’s easy to think you’re so close to being the “old you.” But then, various life circumstances can remind you of the deficits you still need to work through.

While disappointing, these frustrating situations can be a good time to reassess your physical therapy routines and lifestyle after stroke. These setbacks can be an opportunity to make changes and learn from any mistakes you may have been making. In the moments where you’re searching for a ladder once again, you may surprise yourself at how creative you can be when you have no other choice.

Embracing Change After Stroke

When life comes to a screeching halt after a stroke, everything you previously did can feel like a foreign experience, like it was someone else’s life and not your own. You’re truly starting with a blank slate when you return home from rehab since all of your prior habits have been washed away, and you physically can’t do what you used to.

Although frustrating, these limitations caused by stroke give you a chance to explore opportunities you may have previously passed over. After a stroke, you’re forced to turn over every stone – stones that you may not have considered before – as you look for solutions. Personally, recognizing that my body now reacts differently than it used to has been one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the years after stroke. Simple things like an early morning road trip, a social outing, or visiting a crowded gym for a workout can now feel exhausting or overwhelming.

While it’s beyond frustrating to lose some of your favorite hobbies after a stroke, learning new ways of doing things can be a rewarding experience. For example, in the years after stroke, I’ve leaned into activities that I didn’t do as much pre-stroke to improve my physical well-being. Outdoor activities like slacklining, paddleboarding, biking, and going to the local calisthenics park have become some of my new favorites. At social events, I also now skip the alcohol because it can make situations feel more overwhelming and cause me to question my balance. Although this often makes me the outlier, it’s a change that has worked for me.

Beyond the mental and physical changes you experience after stroke, your personal preferences can also change. And in the end, all of those changes aren’t always negative.

Being Patient as the Brain Heals

Recovery after stroke is an ongoing process – just like neuroplasticity. The brain is always changing and adapting. Sometimes there’s a noticeable change. Other times it’s subtle. With a little help from neuroplasticity, there’s always the potential that your current limitations may not be your future limitations. Situations can improve as you work your way through a years-long recovery journey. Since the brain’s way of healing is always in motion, you’ll often have ample opportunities to look for better ways of doing things and progress to look back on and celebrate.

Blair Ames is a writer and stroke survivor. In May 2021, he experienced a hemorrhagic stroke caused by a ruptured arteriovenous malformation. Over the past three years, he’s been sharing stories from his recovery after stroke on a personal blog at strokerecoveryrehab.com.